The Rise of Independent Blogs and Filmmakers

The name "James O' Keefe" was unrecognizable to most people, until the ACORN scandal that rocked the Internet world with undercover videos featuring its workers giving tax advice to a supposed pimp smuggling underage prostitutes. While the story had online bloggers buzzing, there was surprisingly little coverage by the standard news agencies.

With Rasmussen and other pollsters revealing a growing distrust between the America public and the mainstream press, a door has been propped open for the entrance of citizen journalism. Ranging from fringe kooks to ordinary people, its members are driven to pursue political and news stories, often revealing corruption and scandal in sensational reports and blog posts. Once dismissed as out of touch with the public, these sources are now riding the waves of news search popularity and high visitor counts.
The Political Blog

Previously, political blogs were dominated by left-leaning and centrist commentary: the most notable example, Keith Olbermann's "The Daily KOS", featuring opinions from the well-known cable political commentator. Perhaps the name-value success of Olbermann's blog helped sparked the rise in amateur political journals; the Tea Party movement, however, and the rise of conservative journalism propelled the movement to new heights.

Read more at Suite101: Citizen Journalism